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[brandcampinc-blog]

All Work and No Play Makes Johnny a Dull BrandCamper

On the road to being successful, it’s easy to get so caught up in what you are doing, that you forget to enjoy the finer things in life. Although we love our work, becoming so consumed with it that fun becomes a distant memory is an unfortunate issue that any driven person can relate to.

However, it is necessary that we resist the temptation to overwhelm ourselves. One of our favorite quotes around the office is, “Creativity is intelligence having fun.” These wise words were spoken by none other than the great Albert Einstein, a man who, more easily than many, could have succumb to losing the fun run in life, but didn’t.

Being that creativity is the essence of our work here at BrandCamp, and creativity is intelligence having fun, it follows that some element of fun must be a part of our lives. Without it, we’d fall apart.

Luckily, this is a problem we know how to solve. BrandCamp, on the surface, is a branding machine, that produces top of the line branding and marketing content for a slew of different organizations. Beneath this polished exterior, lies a group of creative young individuals, who are secretly all best friends. We laugh together, cry together, and everything in between. We find all sorts of extracurricular activities to busy ourselves with; to get our fun fix.

One such example occurred this past Saturday. Easily the most beautiful day of the year (so far), we decided the scene was set for what was likely the first of a series of company cookouts. With a grill full of food, and a car full of activities, we ventured forth to a nearby beach, and made it our camp for the day. We had everything from kayaks to slackness. It was more fun than you could fit into a hammock (of which we had several).

Jealous? Don’t be. Next time you’re feeling uninspired, perhaps don’t try forcing it. Instead, ask yourself, “Am I having enough fun?”

Here at BrandCamp, we’d like to think the answer is always, “yes.”

[brandcampinc-blog]

Every successful business starts with a single great idea. Every single product or service you buy or use started as a thought in someones head. It is an interesting perspective to consider things in this manor. It is even more interesting to consider that the products you see before you are merely a small fraction of the ideas that have existed in only someones mind, and maybe even on their lips, but never made it to you.

So this then begs the question: how does a business or product idea turn into a successful business? What does it take to bring a business idea from the mind, into a profitable reality?

Enter Startup Weekend, a 54 hour marathon (which at times feels more like a 54 hour sprint), in which participants attempt to do precisely that: bring a new product or business idea to market. This is no small task, considering this process is one that can completely make or break a business. Defining a company’s image, what its precise product or service is, its target market, the logistics of its operations, how it makes money, and how it is to be marketed, is a process that can take months, or even years. Compressing it all into one weekend is indeed a daunting challenge; but it is a challenge that we at Brandcamp couldn’t resist.

Startup Weekend begins with a pitch session. Any prospective entrepreneur can pitch an idea they have that they would like to see turned into a business. 2 of the 6 Brandcampers in attendance decided to throw their hats into the ring, one pitching a community tool sharing app, and the other an app designed to coordinate pay between music venues and musicians. These were among the 20 or so pitches brought to the floor, which all together seemed to bridge nearly every area of commerce.

The playing field is then narrowed via a vote, and we were eventually left with 8 potential companies, one of which was the tool sharing app pitched by a Brandcamper. Three of the other Brandcampers joined his company, which eventually decided on the name Toolshare. The 2 remaining Brandcampers decided to instead spread the love, and join up with team Fiberstarter, a company designed to fund gigabit internet expansion in America, and see what they could do to help this very worthy cause.

After teams are decided, its off to the races. What follows is a roughly 48-hour, nearly sleepless frenzy of product development, web development, design, market research, marketing development,  and pitch formulation, all culminating in a final, 5 minute or less pitch before a panel of potential investors. The interesting twist, is that the teams which take first or second prize for impressing these judges, is a second pitch, in front of real investors, with real money, really looking to invest. For real. Really. So, aside from simply pride, there is also quite tangible motivation to do well.

It is truly inspiring to watch Brandcampers in their natural habitat: hard at work, using creativity to make good ideas work for companies. A weekend like this indeed almost seems like it was made for us. Team Toolshare was able to nail down (pun intended) what their product was fairly quickly: a community tool sharing app, in which users can lend their tools to, or borrow tools from, fellow app users in the area. The app is free, and aims to make money by allowing hardware stores to list their tool rental services on the app. Having figured this out, the designers quickly set about branding the company, and mocking up an example of the app to show at pitch time. Fiberstarter, being an extremely ambitious project with an enormous mission and scale, took a somewhat longer time figuring out exactly what their business model was, and how to bring it to life, but eventually it made its way into pitch development, as well. Since we at Brandcamp have a long time, not-so-secret love affair with video production, both Toolshare and Fiberstarter decided they were going to make a video for their pitch. Toolshare decided to go with a 100% video approach, and incorporated narrative elements with one of its members explaining the app, and its profit model. Bringing this creative idea to life meant scripting, shooting at multiple locations, and all the motion graphic design and animation you’d expect from a quality video. Sure, we could have cut corners, and sleeping more than two hours a night would have been nice, but hey, thats just not how we do things at Brandcamp. Fiberstarter went with a partial video approach, mixing narrated video with what the person giving the pitch in person would be saying, believing this was the easier way to explain their vision.

So, after a long haul, a ton of work, a lot of laughs, and a few tears (Brandcampers have feelings too), we arrived, exhausted, at pitch time. Each team had their promised 5 minutes to present their case, followed by a Q & A with the judges panel. All 8 teams took their turn, doing their best to display proudly, and hopefully convincingly, the fruits of their past 48 hours. The judges then deliberate, and choose a top 3, as well as a few other awards. The crowd also chooses their favorite.

In the end, neither of the teams containing Brandcampers were selected by the judges for their top 3. Third place went to “Paul Request”, a tool for coders designed to remove bad code, saving developers time. Second went to “Cards For Dudes”, a website which makes it easy for users to send comedic spun cards “by dudes, for dudes” to their friends. First place was awarded to “Blaze Backpacking”, an app which attempts to taylor the meetup.com experience to backpacking adventures.

The weekend was not without success for the Brandcampers, however. The judges awarded Toolshare with the “most entertaining” award for their hilarious video presentation, as well as the Makerspace award, which awarded the members of Toolshare a free month membership to the [Appleton Makerspace], a creative hangout in Appleton, WI. Toolshare also won crowd favorite, according to the popular vote. Fiberstarter was very appropriately awarded “most ambitious” by the judges, in recognition of their huge idea to improve infrastructure.

All in all, Startup Weekend was an incredible experience for our heroic Brandcampers. We all learned a lot, and we’d like to think we taught a few people some things as well. Starting a company from scratch isn't easy, and doing it in a weekend is near insanity. We had a great time doing it, however, and we appreciate Startup Weekend for all they did to make it happen. For us, it was just another opportunity to do what Brandcampers do best, and we can’t wait for the next one!